Pet Peeves–Guess who’s got a million of them!

If you know me well, you’ve probably realized I’m not the most easy going person in the world. If you don’t know me that well yet, you’re gonna find out sooner or later, so why should I try to hide it?

All sorts of things bug me, annoy me, or piss me off, and I thought I could write about them from time to time. Just to blow off some steam, you know?

Keep in mind that none of the following are meant to be a judgment on anyone–well, except my downstairs neighbors. I don’t pretend to be or know better than anyone else. I’m just talking about things that bother me to various degrees.

Here are just five of those things, in random order.

1) People who “inflict” their kids on others.

This may seem weird coming from a mother, but notice my phrasing doesn’t blame the kids. I have an eight-and-something month old baby, and it was my choice to have him. It wasn’t the choice of the lovely couple who saved up so they can have a romantic dinner at a fancy restaurant; they shouldn’t have to put up with his shrieking. It wasn’t the choice of the lady walking her dog in the park across form my house; she shouldn’t have to take her dog elsewhere because I decided the fenced up playground isn’t enough for my pride and joy and the park should be his too. The examples I could give you are endless, but what it all comes down to is this:

A child won’t remain a child forever. It will grow to be the adult we teach him or her to be. I don’t want my son to grow into a jerk who believes he can do whatever he wants with no regard for people around him. I don’t want him to grow up surrounded by such jerks either.

This whole thing is not to say I think moms and dads have no business going to posh places or going for strolls in the park with or without their offspring. I’m saying they should do so while respecting those around them the way they too deserve to and should be respected.

2) Unprovoked rudeness

I can be rude with the best of them, but see no reason to. When I’m nice and make an effort not to let my shitty day seep into my interactions with you, I expect you to at least be civil. That expectation goes double when you’re paid to be in the service industry. Triple when you’re dealing with someone who obviously isn’t in your line of work and you need to expect things to them.

Oh, and if you’re rude to my mom because you think she shoplifted a pair of hoop earrings after she brought them to the cashiers and said she wanted to buy them, you better apologize when you find them packaged–by you–together with the necklace the previous customer bought. If you don’t, I’m gonna call you an incompetent, arrogant idiot and report you to your manager.

3) People who threaten my dogs

Just like not everyone has to like children, not everyone has to be a dog person. You may dislike animals in general or dogs in particular, fear them, even hate them. My Love and I know that and try not to “inflict” our dogs on others. We clean after them, don’t let them bark, always walk them on a leash, and have trained them to be friendly unless they perceive danger to the family*. My Love even vacuums the lift after he walks them, so there’s no dog hair in it.

Our downstairs neighbors don’t think that’s enough; the dogs smell of dog, apparently (duh!) which gives the neighbors’ cheese a weird odor when they use the lift after the dogs have been walked. Yes, that is their actual complaint. So they threatened to have the dogs removed. I was eight months pregnant when I went to confront them about it, and they’ve been all smiles since. I guess I’m scary when I’m pissed off. Hmmm…

*Even then, they don’t attack. They growl and will only attack if the threat escalates.

4) Using “he and I” as a posh way of saying “him and me”

The two are used in different cases. Neither is always right. Stop overcompensating, please.

5) When My Love withholds proper arguing

Like I said, I’m not the easiest person to get along with. I often get upset over nothing and even yell with little to no reason. When I do so at My Love, I expect him to yell back, tell me I’m wrong–or if I’m not, tell me he was wrong but I’m overreacting/say it won’t happen again/yell at me anyway. What I hate hate hate when I’m itching for a fight is for him to give me puppy eyes. Why can’t you argue like a normal person, damn it? Can’t you see I need to be irrational? Gah!